Costa marks 70 years of cruising

This year, Costa Cruises celebrates its 70th anniversary milestone with its Costa fleet ships sailing the seas all over the world. Alessandro Bottaro, Sales & Marketing Director—Mediterranean New Markets, UK, East Europe, Africa and Middle East, Costa Crociere S.p.A shares with TravTalk.

TT Bureau

Costa Cruises is celebrating 70 years of cruising this year. How important is this to the cruise industry?
We thank the millions of clients who chose Costa and will continue to select them for their holidays. The Costa Cruises fleet has a total of 14 ships in service, all flying the Italian flag. Two cruise ships powered at sea by Liquefied Natural Gas will be delivered in 2019 and 2021. The Costa Group is the leading cruise company in Europe, headquartered in Genoa (Italy). The 26 ships of the brands Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises and Costa Asia have a total capacity of almost 75,000 beds. The fleet will be further strengthened by seven new vessels by 2023. The company has a global workforce of 27,000 employees working onboard in 14 countries.

Do you have new itineraries for 2018-19?
Each year, Costa’s ships offer a chance to guests to enjoy 140 different routes to visit 250 destinations. Our ships for 2018-19 will operate in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Baltic Sea, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, the United Arab Emirates, the Indian Ocean, as well as Around-theWorld Cruises and Grand Cruises. A variety of opportunities for guests to enjoy our ‘Italy’s finest’ cruise concept includes Italian culinary traditions, specialty restaurants and an elevated level of cuisine.

What measures have Costa taken to provide guests with better connectivity at lesser costs?
While onboard, our guests have the opportunity to fully enjoy their vacation by truly remaining “connected”. Different internet packages are available onboard suited to each customer’s needs. For example, with the new ‘I Love Surfing’ offer, guests have access to have a valuable internet connection, so they can share updates on social media about their experiences of the cruise holiday.

What added benefits will Costa use to attract summer bookings from ME?
North Europe from Stockholm, Amsterdam or Hamburg are really appreciated by customers. We cannot forget our wide offer in the Mediterranean with a lot of different embarkation opportunities like Barcelona, Civitavecchia (Rome), Venice and Savona, to name a few.

Can clients from Dubai expect anything different for Winter 2018-19 itinerary?
We are going to have Costa Mediterranean with homeport in Dubai and port calls in Abu Dhabi, Sir Bani Yas Island and Muscat from November 2018 to March 2019. For Costa ships, the Arabic Peninsula, is now a firm point on our product offer